As part of this family history course we have to come up with a research plan. Here is what I have added to our discussion area.
As I have already completed a lot of my family history over the last 40 years, I want to try to find out more about my great great grandfather who was given the name William SMITH. I would love to find out his actual Samoan name.
So the following is my research aim:
To create historical timeline of Captain William SMITH’s life as a whaler. To do this:
- find out the names of the ships he was on and the dates (PS2) (PS1) (PS4)
- where the ships voyages were (PS1)
- his role on each ship (PS1)
- life on board the ship (PS3) (SS1) (SS2)
Hopefully find his Samoan name by finding out when he was given the name William SMITH.
Primary Sources:
- Marine Board records of ship’s voyages – government record
- Application for master of foreign vessel certificate – government record
- Newspapers of the time – shipping news and articles about voyages – newspaper record
- Images of ships he served on
Secondary sources
- Susan Chamberlain thesis about early whaling in Hobart Town – public record
- Books about whaling around Tasmania from the 1850’s to the 1890’s – public record
- My relatives including Glenn (who I will be interviewing) and Kim – great grandsons of William
- I am wondering if there might be records at the Australian Maritime Museum?
Once I find his Samoan name, then Missionary records held at the Mitchell Library – might need to visit Sydney at some time in the future.
I have lots of records once he became a master mariner in the 1870’s but don’t have much prior to this.
Readers: Can you think of any other primary or secondary sources I could use? Which repository would I find them in?
Hi Suzanne,
You post here has given me food for thought on where I could possible track down my grandfathers shipping records from Finland. He arrived in Newcastle from Uruguay and I would like to find out how he ended up in South America,
Thanks for your great blog.
Tracy
Hi Sue. I am lydia crane’s grandaughter and have also doing some research on william smith. My late husband and i went to Samoa and got married while there i did some research and spoke to registra of B, D&M. He said smith was a very common name the people took names from the missionaries but probably had a native christian name. Smiths were in a certain area of samoa have it written down, need to find it. A lot of there records were destroyed in a fire. Nan always said he was like royalty also found info on that.